Trackman Talks: Decoding data with Dana

September 5, 2025

Welcome back to Trackman Talks, the series where your host Niklas Bergdahl, Head of Trackman University, brings coaches, players and innovators into conversation about the game’s most important themes.

This episode shares the key lessons and philosophies of PGA and LIV Tour coach Dana Dahlquist, showing how he uses Trackman data to help golfers build reliable patterns and translate practice into on-course performance.

What you’ll get from this episode:

Coaching insights: How Dana moved from model-based teaching to using Trackman data to shape individualized instruction.
Performance keys: Why speed, angle of attack, and ball speed matter most for building baselines and controlling ball flight.
Practical tools: Apply situational training, short-game ball speed control, and Trackman University resources to your own game.

Watch the full episode

Trackman Talks: Decoding Data with Dana Dahlquist

Dana's evolution of coaching with Trackman

From models to measurement

Dana Dahlquist first encountered Trackman in the fitting bays of major manufacturers, when the technology offered little more than launch, spin, and speed. What caught his attention were the unfamiliar parameters—vertical swing plane, horizontal swing plane—that raised more questions than answers.

Those questions pushed him beyond the “model-based” teaching he had relied on for years.

He recalled teaching players to “keep the swing direction at zero” and adjust aim or ball position to control curve. But Trackman showed him that this didn’t consistently produce the desired ball flights.

Around that time, online discussions among coaches such as James Leitz and Brian Manzella helped spread the D-plane concept. For Dana, it opened the door to a more data-driven understanding of ball flight mechanics and shaped the next stage of his coaching.

Moving away from zero

Dana emphasizes that “zeroing out” path and face is not the answer. He describes the pursuit of zero as leaving players with no margin for error—no ability to favor one side of the course or build in a protective miss.

For him, Trackman’s value is in showing players their shot patterns and helping them build a bias they can trust.

In his view, the modern game has benefited from technically sound swings, but what separates players is their ability to commit to repeatable patterns rather than striving for perfect neutrality.

Coaching beyond the Tour players

One of the first lessons Dana took from the data was that speed separates players. A tour professional swinging at 125 mph faces a very different set of variables than an amateur at 104 mph.

“I don’t really care what Tour players do. They’re all outlier athletes. I think it matters a lot what a 15 handicap does—because they want to become a 10.”

Dana Dahlquist

Angle of attack, launch, and spin cannot be prescribed in the same way for both. Each player’s “optimal” depends on speed and tendencies, and the definition of optimal shifts within a range.

The instant feedback loop from Trackman became essential.

Instead of waiting weeks to evaluate a swing change, Dana and his players could validate adjustments on the spot. Over time, this led him to develop skill-acquisition games and practice structures that reinforce learning in a more engaging way.

Trackman University's new short game modules

The Trackman team has recently introduced new short-game learning resources inside Trackman University, designed for coaches and players who want to deepen their wedge play.

Highlights include:

Distance control modules – how ball speed and launch affect carry and rollout.
Spin generation analysis – the role of friction, grooves, and lie conditions.
Performance charts – comparisons across tour players and handicap groups.
Interactive calculators (in development) – sliders for ball speed, launch, and spin to test outcomes in real time.

For coaches, these tools provide practical ways to tailor sessions for different players. For golfers, they explain why two shots with the same club can react so differently depending on spin, lie, or launch.

Dana's short game tip: Ball speed

Ball speed in the short game is often overlooked, yet it sets the table for everything else—carry distance, rollout, and spin behavior. If you start there, the rest begins to make sense.

Most players think first about contact. That’s natural—it’s tactile, it’s immediate, and it’s visible. But as Dahlquist explains, the second step is ball speed. Without awareness of ball speed, a player has no reliable way to connect intent with outcome.

““For the weekend warrior, the average player around town, it’s interesting—they can’t control ball speed. They don’t understand that factor.””

Dana Dahlquist

Read more: What is Ball Speed?

Analysis of Trackman data for player improvement

Key data parameters

For Dana, the most useful Trackman metrics are:

Face to-Path: The main driver of curvature
Swing Direction and Attack Angle: Influencing path and launch
Ball Speed, Spin Rate, and Spin Axis: Context for distance and shape

Adjusting for skill-level, shot type and club

The level of precision depends on the player. A college golfer might need strict control of face-to-path, while a higher-handicap player benefits more from developing a consistent pattern—even if the numbers are wider.

Focus shifts depending on the club. With shorter irons and wedges, launch and spin take priority, as control has the greatest impact on performance.

Dana's coaching philosophy: Lessons learned

Dana reflected that if he had fully understood ball flight mechanics earlier in his career, his teaching would have looked very different.

One of his key lessons has been to avoid imposing personal bias. Players should not be molded into their coach’s swing but developed according to their own strengths and goals.

Much of his philosophy centers on empowerment: helping players diagnose their own misses, adjust with aim or ball position, and avoid panic when shots go offline.

For him, Trackman’s role is not to dictate technique, but to give players the clarity to understand and trust their patterns.

Knowing a baseline

Tour players have the advantage of knowing their windows—launch, spin, and curvature—and using those to judge when they are inside or outside their performance zone.

Dana points to Viktor Hovland as an example of a player who trusts his baseline and avoids unnecessary equipment changes when numbers are already in range.

For the amateur, the principle is the same.

Establishing a reliable baseline makes improvement possible. It also provides clarity: if the numbers drift, the player knows what has changed and how to adjust. Many players’ self-assessment doesn’t align with reality, making objective data essential to set these baselines.

From range to the course

One of the recurring themes in this conversation is transfer. A player can stripe balls on the range, but without situational awareness, the scorecard tells a different story.

Dahlquist illustrates this, recalling a 12-year-old student who hit perfect shots in practice but faltered when the wind and targets shifted on the course.

The solution? Connect the dots with situational practice:

Use Trackman apps to simulate course conditions.
Cluster analysis helps players see tendencies in miss patterns.
Develop commitment-based training, where players learn to choose one shot and fully execute it.

As Dahlquist emphasizes: “The commitment piece is everything. Let’s just get good at one thing. If you do that, then the whole round is really easy.”

Juniors and the role of parents

Dana also speaks about junior development, stressing the importance of involving parents in the process—especially for tournament players.

Many juniors already use Trackman, but he recommends focusing on a few key parameters rather than trying to absorb everything at once.

For motivated players, self-guided testing and Trackman University resources are valuable tools for deeper learning and better communication with their coaches.

Key takeaways from Dana’s Dahlquist's approach

Don’t chase perfection.
Instead of trying to hit zero on path and face, build a playable pattern that protects you from the big miss.
Know your baseline.
Establish the numbers that define your “good” shots so you can recognize when you’re drifting and adjust quickly.
Train with situations in mind.
Use scenarios that mirror real course decisions to bridge the gap between range and competition.
Empower players.
Teach them to understand and manage their own patterns instead of relying on constant technical intervention.

Want to dive deeper?

Each episode of Trackman Talks highlights how data connects to performance and how the people shaping golf are applying it in practice.

Check out our recent series, The Mental Game Big Three, with golf mentality coaches Gary Nicol and Karl Morris, or find all Trackman Talks Episodes on the Trackman Blog.